Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Blue Jays not in on Manny

Earlier this week, Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi told MLB.com that his club isn’t targeting any big power bats on the free-agent market at the moment. Due to financial constraints, Toronto would prefer to solve its need for offence via trade.

Even so, various reports continue to toss the Blue Jays in as a potential player for free-agent slugger Manny Ramirez. Ricciardi once again attempted to put those rumors to rest in an interview with ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark.

“We won’t be involved with Manny,” Ricciardi said. “That keeps coming up, but it’s not true. I think one reason is that Manny has always liked it in Toronto. He’s hit more home runs here than anybody. And he likes the city, because he can fly under the radar here.

“So he may be asking his agent to try to find a way to put him here. He’s a great hitter, so it’s tempting. But being tempted and being realistic are two separate things.”

JP can’t trade Halladay because he is not allowed too. Even if Beeston wanted Doc traded to replenish the prospects, I can’t see him trusting JP with the negotiating.

It would be a travesty if we traded him considering Doc has played every year above what he gets paid relative to the market. How do we trade him when he has said numerous times that he wants to stay in Toronto and is the best pitcher in the game? Sure he would fill our system with prospects if we traded him but Doc has to be a Blue Jay. He is everything you could ask for in a pitcher and leader. Guys like that don’t come around everyday.

Uncle Teddy needs better phone sales people so we can start spending money on FA’s!!!

In theory Doc is the best guy to trade because you will get the most for him. The only players on the Jays roster that will fetch any kind of return right now are Doc and Wells. And Wells is overpaid and has a back-end-loaded contract that no team wants to pick up. So, if the Jays are looking to rebuild, then Doc will be the first to go.
Also, you need to look at the buy-sell model. Buy Low, Sell high. Doc is at his highest value right now. If they wait until next season, he will only have 1 year left on his contract. Plus, if a pitcher shows any signs of injury, their trade value sinks like a stone. Right now Halliday is healthy, young, under contract, and underpaid. If that isn’t a recipe for a trade, I don’t know what is!!!
The only reason to keep Doc is if you expect to be World Series contenders. Doc will not put up with losing for much longer. Winners like Halliday NEED to be in the playoffs.

Oh JP will offer 5 years seeing as that’s his only possible way of keeping him. I’m all for it if it’s the same layout as his last contract except the Jays would hold the option to opt-out after 3 years and not Burnett.

If I’m making the deal, I pay more per year but hold options on year 4&5… 5 years deal worth 90mil with 20mil club options on years 4 & 5. Keeps him in more contract years thus more effort and if he becomes a bandaid again we would only be stuck with him for 3 years. High salary but only 3 years guaranteed. But hey it’s easy for me to throw that money out there since it’s not mine.

It’s looking more an more like 09 will be the year of the youngster for the Jays. I’m ok with that as long as they don’t blow what money they do have on washed up old guys. It’s ok to leave some money in the bank for a midseason trade or a FA that we WANT in 2010.

This isn’t too bad considering we have guys like Cooper 1B, Arencibia C with power in the minors coming fast.

4 years 88 million with a team option for year 5 and 6 (and no intention of picking it up.) If that sucks up all the money for any other free agent then so be it. If the pitching stinks this year they’ll still be in good shape for 2010.
I’d like them to trade one of the big contracts though.
(Ryan, Rios, Wells, Rolen or Lyle)

Look for a shortstop via trade. I’ve read the Angels are willing to make a move.

GS, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them offer 5 yrs. If they can’t give him the most money they have to offer something enticing.

Enigma
I just can’t see why we’d sign Burnett at all. Unless we sign a couple of huge bats like Tiexera and Manny and really go for it in 2009, we have no chance of winning. The Yanks, Boston and TB are going to be too tough for us to overtake them with the bats we have.
The Canadian dollar has dropped off a cliff in the last 3 months. The Jays 100 million US dollar payroll which cost them about $95 million Canadian in 2008 now costs them $128 million Canadian dollars, a significant change. If we signed Manny and Tiexera at $20 million US ($25.6 million Canadian) each in order to serious challenge in 2009, Rogers would have to pony up over $80 million more Canadian dollars in 2009 than they did in 2008. That is not going to happen.
In 2010, we have Marcum, McGown, Litsch and Halliday ( if we don’t trade him and I hope we do) and by that time Purcey, Romero, Cecil and Mills offer legitimate contendors for other starting positions. In addition, Janssen, provides another option and hopefully we have more contendors coming at that point of time.

So signing Burnett will hamper us for whatever the length of contract we sign him to. We have enough of those types of contracts with Wells and Rolen. As an old song says: You go to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. In my view, 2009 is the year we should fold them, rebuild with smart trades and try to contend in 2010 or 2011.

GS, I don’t necassarily disagree with your last paragraph. I think they should focus on acquiring a shortstop who’s signed for a couple of years so that they are ready to contend for 2010-2011.
However if the opportunity to sign Manny presents itself as a realisitic option then i’m all for it (Big contract or not). I know it’s not likely but the fact that the rumours wont go away keeps my hope alive.
His addition alone can make them a threat in ’09. Him and a healthy Vernon Wells (if he isn’t traded) will improve the offense greatly.

Why hasn’t you-know-who signed and returned the $140 milliion offer sheet from the Yankees? I will be very surprised if he takes (too) much less money to play elsewhere. On a different note, there is no way that Burnett (and some of these other guys) should be paid more than Halliday. Either re-negotiate his (Halliday) contract now, or move him. If he does not get his money now, he will get it later once his contract expires and he can seek it south of the border. What we do not want to happen is another Matts Sundin scenario to unfold.

If the Jays can give Wells a contract for 120mm for 7 years what is wrong with giving Tex a 10 year 200mm deal????
We all know that 09 will be a ******** year,The only good thing about it is JP will be gone.
The best thing the Jays can do is forget Burnett and go after Manny,he will win more than 18 games for the Jays with his bat,and a 5 year deal with him is not out of line.
I think They have enough in house pitchin to get by,Bring in two big bats and lets roll.

****(from SI) According to reports, 22-year-old Japanese right-hander Junichi Tazawa is considering offers from four major league teams — the Indians, Braves, Rangers and Red Sox — but is leaning toward signing with Boston. Definitive terms of the offers are not clear, but the Rangers are said to have made the best offer.

This kid has been clocked at between 94 and 97 mph and since he hasn’t been drafted by a Japanese club there will be no club payment needed.

The Jays need to scout in Japan and find and sign some of these kids. It appears there’s some serious talent coming out of Japan and we need to get our share.

gs,
Here is another perspective on the Japanese market this yr . This article says Tazawa fastball barely tops out at 90 mph but is usually closer to 88 and he isn’t likely to get much better . I also read somewhere that he asked not to be drafted by the Japanese Nippon League because he wanted to play in the majors making him more attractive because there was no posting fee. There are way too many conflicting reports . Jays should look into scouting overseas but first we need good GM

Indigo
It appears different stories state different things. I’ve now seen 4 and each one has a different speed from 87 to 97-so you’re right, there are conflicting reports. Although the one thing has is consistent in each story is there is no posting fee.
If we had good scouts over there we could sign these kids when there 18-19 and not worry about posting fees at all. There is a wealth of talent there and we’re not in the mix. The Sox have apparently been scouting him for over a year and it looks like they might sign him for $3 to $6 million over 3 years.
These developing talent countries like Japan and all of Latin America provide a great opportunity to find and sign kids because they don’t go through the MLB draft and in some cases have no agents or at least not Scott Boras. We’re being left behind again (surprise, surprise) because of lack of foresight, knowledge or desire-who knows.

I agree with your sentiments on a good GM. Japan is another case where we are asleep at the switch.

With the economy sinking, however, the team’s interim CEO acknowledged Thursday that Toronto might choose to save the $24 million Burnett passed up this offseason rather than spend it on other free agents.

“It’s a possibility,” Beeston said. “We can spend $100 million, but if it doesn’t make sense, why do it?”

***Thank you Paul Beeston, you are right, it doesn’t make sense to resign Burnett. How refreshing it is to see a Jays executive with common sense.

I think that you’re right that all the rumors continue about Manny coming to the Jays because he is so successful over there. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind it over there. It’ll be interesting to see where Manny goes.
-Elizabethhttp://redsoxgirl46.mlblogs.com

It looks like the Jays are just willing to let ’09 play out and hope to have a chance of contending in 2010. They’ll have some guys on expiring contracts and hopefully a healthy starting rotation. I wonder how the casual fan will take to that.

It seems like the Jays are only in on A.J. to make it look like they tried when deep down they know he wont accept it.
They’ll probably make some minor tweaks for “window dressing” but i’m no longer expecting much.
A whole lot can change though between now and spring so we’ll see.

On a light note I noticed today that Vernon Wells’ left arm is a different colour than his right (check out the picture with him Halladay, and Rios on the Blue Jays home page near the bottom left)

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